This invention relates to packaging for semiconductor photovoltaic devices known generally as solar cells.
Photovoltaic devices present unique problems requiring specialized packaging to achieve desired levels of durability, mechanical integrity, electrical connectivity, maximum thermal transfer, and convenience of mounting. The packaging must also lend itself to a low cost and highly automated manufacturing process. The delicate semiconductor material used as the operative portion of a solar cell must be protected from excessive current by attaching, for example, an additional device such as a bypass diode in parallel with the anode and cathode of the device, an operation normally accomplished by soldering surface mount plastic packaged devices in a manner that may cause high rates of mechanical failure in actual usage. Further, suppliers of photovoltaic cells and systems are increasingly required to guarantee that their products will operate without replacement for long periods of time, in some cases up to 30 years or more. The packaging for such cells must therefore provide durability as well as reliability.
Current solar cell package designs suffer from design and component limitations that restrict package usage. For example, solar cell packaging to date has relied on ceramics such as aluminum nitride (ALN) and berrylium oxide (BeO) to provide thermally conductive substrates between the heat sink and solar cell. Because of the limited number of suppliers, use of these ceramic substrates increases the cost of manufacturing the solar packaging. Commercialized solar packages also require that the chip, thermally conductive substrates, and heat sink be stacked vertically, increasing the profile of the package and thereby making hermetic sealing of the solar package more difficult and expensive. A further limitation of solar packaging designs in current use is a maximum platform size of 4.5 inches×4.5 inches. An increased platform size would reduce the raw materials input required at the front end of the manufacturing process, ultimately increasing the capacity throughput.